About the author (2004) Peter Blood and Annie Patterson have over 25 years of experience in song-leading at conferences and gatherings using Rise Up Singing throughout the United States, Canada. Rise Up Singing is a popular folk music fake book containing chords, lyrics, and sources. There are 1200 songs in the 2004 edition. The book does not include notation of the songs' melodies (with the exception of the two sections on rounds), meaning that users must either know the tune, or find a recording, to be able to learn many of the songs.
When Peter and Annie Blood-Patterson first put together the Rise Up Singing Songbook, they had no idea that someday it would sell 1 million copies around the world.
For more information on Annie & Peter's music work, visit their new website www.riseupandsing.org. Also check out their Indiegogo campaign to support their work and new songbook Rise Again.
Click here to hear Peter and Annie play the full song!
Resources:
- Subscribe to QuakerSpeak so you never miss a video
- Read about how Pete Seeger Influenced Peter and Annie in this Friends Journal Article.
- Peter and Annie are currently raising money for a follow-up songbook, called 'Rise Again'. Find out more!
- Explore the Quaker way to see if it could be right for you
- Worship with Friends! Find Quakers near you on QuakerFinder and Friends Journal's meeting listings
- Read Friends Journal to see how other Friends describe the substance of Quaker spirituality
- Quaker Voluntary Service has opportunities for young women and men interested in social and personal transformation through service work and living in Quaker community.
Discussion Questions:
- Have you ever had the experience that Annie and Peter are talking about, where you felt opened and even transformed by singing with a group?
- What are some of your favorite songs to sing with groups?
Transcript:
Annie Patterson
I'm Annie Patterson, and I go to Mount Toby Meeting in Western Massachusetts. It's part of New England Yearly Meeting. And I'm one of the co-creators of the songbook Rise Up Singing.
Peter Blood-Patterson
I'm Peter Blood-Patterson. All the same, another co-conspirator of songbook making.
Rise Up Singing is a collection of 1,200 songs. Just has words and chords, no music in it at all. It's basically designed for people to teach each other songs and sing together and be able to have the words. It's been amazingly popular, more than we ever imagined.
Rise Again Songbook
Annie Patterson
And today it's sold over a million copies. It's being used in China, in the Ukraine, Russia, and all kinds of places as a community builder, so Rise Up Singing became what we really wanted it to become. We wanted it to become a kind of tool for community organizing and for gathering people together.
Peter Blood-Patterson
The kind of mission we had for this work is similar to what Pete Seeger's done with music over the past, which is to use song as a way of drawing people together into community, even people who think they can't sing often end up at concerts singing their hearts out, and using that experience of singing with other people to kind of draw hearts together and to create transformation. Transformation that gives people inspiration to do peace and justice work and healing of the planet work, and also to empower them to overcome whatever obstacles there might be in their own lives personally.
Listening to the Still Small, Voice
Annie Patterson
I think it's hard to talk about what we do when we lead singing without talking about Spirit and our connection to prayer and to how we live our lives as Quakers, because when we do a sing-a-long, we often take time beforehand to meet together and just to sort of say, 'what are we feeling?' 'What are we connecting with with the energy we're feeling from the audience?'
Different places call for different kinds of songs, but we really think about that on that level in which we actually would also pray and have quiet time in Meeting for Worship.
Peter Blood-Patterson
When we're doing concerts we actually occasionally fall into silence. There's not usually silence… maybe after a very poignant song, but throughout the entire evening, we'll be listening to the voice, the still small voice of God so to speak, giving us little nudges or whispers about where this is going. So sometimes we'll end up singing songs that are quite different than what we planned in the beginning.
I think likewise, Spirit works through the people that are with us, because probably some people came and said, 'Oh, I'm just going to sit and listen to these people sing,' and when they were in the audience, somehow the Spirit nudged them and they found their voices rising up in ways that they didn't expect.
Annie Patterson
Because we see it. We see it all the time. People get caught up in the energy of the song, and certain songs really do bring that out in people.
Peter Blood-Patterson
So basically, we feel it is possible that God can influence people and change them in any situation, but in situations like a really good singalong is a place where maybe their barriers are down a little bit more, and they're more able to be impacted by Spirit's work in their hearts.
A Place in the Choir (All God's Critters), words & music by Bill Staines © Mineral Music (BMI).
Rise Up Singing Songbook Index
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Laura Drotar, who uses they/them pronouns, enjoys folk music and its ability to bring people together. Their favorite piece of folk music history is the songbook 'Rise Up Singing.'
My favorite thing is the 'Rise Up Singing' songbook, by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson. I've been fascinated with folk music in my adult life. I didn't grow up with; my parents didn't introduce much music to me. I was really interested in folk music after hearing the 'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?' soundtrack. The song 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' blew me away.
One summer, in 2016, I decided to do this weeklong visit to a place called Dancing Rabbit Eco Village in Missouri. My sister heard about it and thought I would be interested in it. It's a sustainable living community and a small village that's totally off the grid. I stayed for about 10 days. It was really awesome; they would build homes out of natural materials and all sorts of things. My favorite thing about the camp was the singing circle. Everybody would be in the community room and sit around and sing songs. There were a few copies of this book, 'Rise Up Singing.' A lot of the songs we sang were in this book.
I spoke with somebody who was born in Dancing Rabbit, and he told me he loved the book. He said the book was kind of like a bible to him. I was blown away by it too. The book has all sorts of categories of songs. Some of them are 'Farm and Prairie,' 'Hard Times and Blues,' 'Unity' and 'Women Work.' When I returned home from the trip, I ordered a copy of the book from eBay and made Spotify playlists out of all the songs. I play guitar and I like to sing, so I tried to learn a lot of them. I'm always impressed by how many are in there. I always try to have at least two copies, so if I am with people we can sing together.
In the 'Peace' section there's a song called, 'I Didn't Raise My Boy to be a Soldier.' It was written in 1914. It was one of the most popular songs in America at the time, and the American government later banned it. Later, another huge song was a propaganda tune called 'Johnny Get Your Gun.' It's really fascinating that this song — a pacifist message from the perspective of a mother — was banned and then the very next year a song comes out encouraging people to fight in the war. My favorite way to learn history is through folk songs. I didn't understand history in public schools; I tend to do a lot better with natural science. History seemed like memorizing dates. Through folk music, and especially this book, I've really gotten a sense of working class and people's history. It's given me a sense of the conditions of people through different times. It's given me more direction and tools to understand the issues we face today.
Interview edited and condensed by Skyler Ashley. If you have a suggestion for Favorite Things, please email Skyler@lansingcitypulse.com
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